Rotatable objects such as wheel assembly components are often a failure point on wheeled vehicles, such as rail cars, automobiles, trucks etc. In some vehicles, such as rail cars, wheel assemblies are attached to the vehicles via a bearing assembly component which extends from the face of the wheel. The vehicle rests on the bearing assembly which, along with the wheel assembly, supports the weight of the vehicle. Hence, much stress is placed on the wheel assembly and its components through this supporting function, and further stress is placed on the bearing assembly, and the various other components of the wheel assembly, via acceleration forces placed on the vehicle. Wheel assemblies are thus prone to seizing up, and may be a key failure point on the vehicles.
Maintenance of the wheel assembly components is thus an important aspect of vehicle maintenance, and rail car maintenance specifically. Further, an understanding of the history of each wheel assembly component can be a key factor in making decisions about the maintenance schedule of the wheel assembly component and the wheel assembly itself. For example, a wheel assembly component that has been in use for a long period of time may benefit from preventative maintenance. However, this may only be cost effective if it is done at an appropriate time, which requires a record to be maintained of how long the wheel assembly has been in use. Further, wheel assembly components which have been in higher than normal stress situations may also benefit from preventative maintenance. Examples of higher than normal stress situations might be an accident, undue vibration due to poorly maintained areas of track, or travel through harsh terrains and/or weather conditions. Another indicator that a wheel assembly component would benefit from maintenance is the temperature of a wheel assembly component that is in use or has recently been in use: wheel assembly components that contain worn, moving parts tend to heat up due to friction. An example of such a wheel assembly component is again a bearing assembly.
The history of the maintenance schedule of the wheel assembly component may also be a key factor in determining future maintenance schedules of the wheel assembly component. For example, a common procedure during maintenance is to machine the moving parts of a bearing assembly to reduce frictional stress. However, this can be an expensive procedure, in that the wheel assembly must be disassembled, as must the bearing assembly, and the machining must be precise. Further, a bearing assembly may accept only a limited number of these procedures throughout its life, as material is removed from the bearing assembly during the machining process. Hence, machining a bearing assembly is a procedure which might be performed only from time to time, and not as a routine procedure.
Hence, it is desirable to track the history of wheel assembly components, including both the in-use history of the wheel assembly component, as well as the maintenance history of the wheel assembly component, for making decisions about future maintenance schedules. Understanding the history of the wheel assembly component may also be beneficial in warranty tracking and management. One solution for tracking the maintenance history of a wheel assembly component has been to physically mark the wheel assembly components with an alpha-numeric identifier, such as an identification number, and then manually track the status of the wheel assembly component by recording events in the history of the wheel assembly component against the identification number. However, this solution relies on a maintenance worker remembering to record the identification number, and to cross reference events. Further, this does not address the problem of tracking the in-use history of the wheel assembly component. Returning again to the example of the bearing assembly, in situations where many rail cars are moving in and out of a maintenance yard, it is not practical to stop each train and check the number of each bearing assembly on each rail car.
There remains a need therefore for an improved apparatus, system and method, for tracking a rotatable object.